Terry Wohlers, renowned industry consultant, speaker and author, will give the keynote address to kick off the sixth annual conference, a two-day event covering current challenges and solutions in product development and design collaboration.

Wohlers is principal consultant and president of Wohlers Associates, Inc., an independent consulting firm he founded 23 years ago. Through this company, Wohlers has provided consulting assistance to more than 150 organizations in 21 countries. He has authored more than 350 books, articles and technical papers, and has spoken to thousands of engineers, scientists and executives. And he has given 65 keynote presentations on five continents. His presentation will introduce an entirely new way of thinking about how products are conceived, developed and produced, and give a look to the future at some of the technologies he believes will power this new paradigm.

"Many of the technologies we use to communicate weren't around just a few years ago," explained Wohlers. "And much more is around the corner. Customers are now directly involved in product design. Assemblies that before consisted of 15-20 parts now can be done in one piece and manufactured in a couple days. This eliminates part numbers, inventory, entire assembly lines, labor and maintenance. And, it comes with complete design freedom (complexity for free), as opposed to the design-for-manufacturing constraints of the past. I'm thrilled to be able to speak to this eclectic gathering of movers and shakers in engineering and IT in global manufacturing. It's exciting to share perspectives on some of the new ideas and processes that I believe will shape the way we work together."

"Excellence in collaboration and communication is central to everything we do in manufacturing, especially as our design, development and manufacturing teams have become spread out over the four corners of our flattened earth," said David Prawel, president of Longview Advisors and CIC Founder. "It is extremely difficult to stay aware of technologies that might be emerging in two to five years, which may have a profound impact on the way we bring products to market. Terry is one of the world's most respected consultants and he is a fabulous speaker. We're really happy to have him at our event."